Canadians increased their debt burdens by about six per cent over the past year, according to a new survey from BMO, but when it comes to owing money, different parts of the country are headed in different directions.

Western Canadians have seen their debts skyrocket over the past year, BMO says, with Alberta taking the lead. The average houshold debt there soared 40 per cent, to $124,838. It's the highest debt burden of any region in Canada.

British Columbians’ average household debt jumped 26 per cent, to $99,834, from $79,089.

Meanwhile, Ontarians have been paying down their debt. The average debt burden in Canada’s largest province fell 12 per cent over the past year, to $67,507.

As BMO notes, that means Albertans now have nearly twice as much debt, on average, as Ontarians.

Check out the full list of debt burdens from BMO.

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Debt Per Person, In Each Province

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Average household debt, 2014, according to BMO.
Previous year: $56,860
Change, 2013 to 2014: up 5.2%

Average household debt, 2014, according to BMO.
Previous year: $47,237
Change, 2013 to 2014: up 35.4%

Average household debt, 2014, according to BMO
Previous year: $76,970
Change, 2013 to 2014: down 12.3%

Average household debt, 2014, according to BMO
Previous year: $82,100
Change, 2013 to 2014: down 16.6%

Average household debt, 2014, according to BMO.
Previous year: $72,045
Change, 2013 to 2014: up 5.7%

Average household debt, 2014, according to BMO
Previous year: $79,089
Change, 2013 to 2014: up 26.2%

Average household debt, 2014, according to BMO.
Previous year: $89,026
Change, 2013 to 2014: up 40.2%

How Canada's Debt Burden Compares

Canada hit a record high in the first quarter of 2011, reaching $1.5 trillion in household debt. If spread evenly across Canada, that means every family with two children has $176,461 in debt.
In the U.S., household debt hit $11.5 trillion by the end of March this year. The average household debt in the U.S. for a family of four is $148,000.

With their debt ceiling raised again, the U.S. has more than $14 trillion in government debt in the first quarter of 2011. Canada has more than $563 billion. That figure works out to 84 per cent of Canada's GDP, compared to 58.9 per cent for the U.S.

In the first quarter of 2011, the average Canadian had more than $3,500 in credit card debt, according to TransUnion Canada. In the U.S., the average American consumer owes more than $4,200 in credit card debt.

As of June 2011, the median cost of a home in Canada was $372,000. Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto are some of the most expensive places in the country to buy a house. Prices in the U.S. vary more than they do in Canada. As of June, the median price of a home in the Northeast was $261,000, while the median price in the Midwest was $147,000. The median in the South was $159,100 and in the West, it was $240,400.
The average price of a home in the UK is £232,628 as reported by their first quarter in 2011, which converts to around CAD $371,000.

In 2010, there were more than 1.5 million non-business bankruptcy filings in the U.S. In the same year, there were only 92,694 personal bankruptcies in Canada. That means there were 48 bankruptcies per 10,000 people in the U.S., and 28 bankruptcies per 10,000 in Canada.

Rapidly rising house prices are part of the reason Albertans are seeing a spike in debt, BMO economist Sal Guatieri said.

Much of the growth in home prices and sales in recent months has been concentrated in three markets -- Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver.

Home sales in Calgary grew 16 per cent in June, compared to a year earlier, while Vancouver saw sales jump 29.4 per cent and Toronto saw an increase of 11.6 per cent.

However, Toronto’s condo market has not seen the sort of price growth seen in the overall housing markets in Calgary and Vancouver, which may help to explain why Ontarians’ debt burdens aren’t growing.

Those rapidly growing home sales numbers also help to explain why a larger number of Canadians hold mortgage debt today than last year.

The number of households with mortgage debt grew by 13 per cent in the past year, BMO’s survey found, to 43 per cent of all households.